A wonderful Shabbat (Israel, Day 3)

[rhu]

The local shul is a half-minute walk up the street. I went to shul last night with abbasegal, and it was delightful. The people were davenning with beautiful harmonies, and the acoustics of the shul amplify the voices. That was followed by a delightful dinner with our hosts.

Shul this morning was, again, wonderful. Hallel, in particular, was an uplifting, very spiritual experience. I was transported; I closed my eyes and swayed to the waves of music washing over and through me, weaving my harmony line into the tapestry of sound. I was given the Levi aliyah; ironically, the Kohen aliyah (the one right before mine) went to someone who goes to my shul in Newton and is also in town visiting.

The kids in the neighborhood basically have the run of the street on Shabbat. They visit friends, pop in to shul to check on their parents, etc. Pretty cool.

After shul there was an English shiur (class), which I sat in on. During the class, we heard airplanes overhead; given the recent issues with Gaza, it was a good bet what was going on.

After a delightful lunch (interrupted by a visit to shul for early Mincha --- and there was someone there who had changed into his uniform; he had been called up, another indication that there was an operation starting) we went for a walk around Efrat. Nice playgrounds. :-) Seriously, it's a bunch of small villages, each with a small center with a few shops (pizza place, books and cards, etc.) and playground. It was amazingly quiet; there were only two or three cars on the road during the two hours of our walk. It felt like almost the whole world around us was full of the peace of Shabbat.

Back home in time for Maariv, and in a few minutes we'll light candles (once the kids are done cleaning up). Meanwhile, I've checked the news and found out some details about what's happening in Gaza. We hope that it ends soon -- first, because of the loss of life; but to be honestly selfish, we hope it won't disrupt our plans, but we'll deal with whatever comes.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to know who got the Kohen aliyah.